The introduction of the Vega product line further enables us to provide compelling solutions for all global markets through our complete line-up of ARMADA ® Mobile communications processors," said Ivan Lee, VP of Mobile Products at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.

In a recent interview with EE Times, Ivan Lee, vice president of mobile products at Marvell said that China Mobile recently announced the requirements for their TD-LTE.
The world's largest mobile operator's specification says it needs to be able to operate on TD-SCDMA and GSM inside China.
It requires the TD-LTE modem to offer roaming capability on 4G and FDD, not to mention 3G and WCDMA.
During the interview, Lee said, "We'll have a TD-LTE modem by the end of 2012, which meets all the requirements set forth by China Mobile."

Following is an excerpt from a one-on-one interview EE Times conducted with Ivan Lee, vice president of mobile products at Marvell.He oversees development work both in China and in the United States.

EE Times: Why is Marvell's mobile product team so spread out?
And what's the division of labor among those teams in different locations?

Ivan Lee: It's largely for historical reasons.

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Lee: In China, our focus has been more on the TD-SCDMA work we started four years ago; and now more on TD-LTE development.

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Lee: The team here did everything from conceptualization of TD-SCDMA to its architectural development and production.

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Lee: We actually did look at all the IP options and potential acquisition targets.

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Lee: Spreadtrum, Leadcore, MediaTek (after their acquisition of ADI's modem team), etc.
The cost for these solutions was high; and we found them integrated poorly.
As we were coming from nowhere, we thought we should develop an architecture that scales for the future.

EE Times: Speaking of architecture that scales for the future, are you referring to TD-LTE?

Lee: We are currently working on a TD-LTE modem.

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Lee: True, because not everyone has a complete solution.

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Lee: I wouldn't call it us taking our eyes off.
We've done very well with our PXA920, dominating China's TD-SCDMA-based smartphone market.
But we do understand that the multi-core solutions are becoming very important, and our competitors have done very well.
Our plan is to roll out over the next two to three quarters a family of TD-SCDMA-based chips - integrated with dual core, quad core and GPU.

EE Times: You say your group is not about "light product development" focused more on customer support - which a lot of multinationals have been doing.

Lee: Ye.
We have quite a bit of autonomy here.
We execute R&D, product development here in China.

EE Times: Are you at all concerned at all about IP theft or employee retention?

Lee: I understand that IP theft happened in the past.

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Lee: Our employees in China are young, and young people tend to move more often.
But our work force has been pretty stable.